A new analysis of the state of global hunger reveals that conflicts, climate change and economic shocks are driving a growing number of people into acute hunger, jeopardizing the gains made in previous years towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of ending hunger by 2030.

The Global Food Crisis Report 2024, published yesterday, Wednesday (24), concludes that 281.6 million people, or 21.5% of the populations analyzed in 2023, faced high levels of acute insecurity in 59 countries and territories in food crisis.

"When we talk about acute food insecurity, we are talking about hunger so severe that it poses an immediate threat to people's livelihoods and lives," said Dominique Burgeon, director of the Food and Agriculture Organization in Geneva.

Cited by VOAThe report also states that "food crises increased alarmingly in conflict zones" in 2023, particularly in Gaza and Sudan. At the end of the year, the Gaza Strip became the most serious food crisis in the history of the report.

However, Burgeon states that Sudan is facing a hunger crisis and demands immediate action to halt the rapid deterioration of the food security situation in the country.

For his part, the global coordinator of UNICEF's nutrition group in Geneva, Stefano Fedele, said that 36.4 million children under the age of 5 in 32 crisis countries are severely undernourished and 9.8 million are severely undernourished and urgently need treatment.